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3-D art showcased in Shepherd Union Gallery

straws-1
(Source: Sarah Ericson) “Material Evidence” will feature 11 sculptures from Weber State University visual arts students, including “Straws” by Sean Moyer.

Starting tomorrow night, students will have the opportunity to view three-dimensional art in the Shepherd Union Gallery at Weber State University. The opening reception will be 7-9 p.m., and the sculptures will remain on display until March 28.

This is the second year 3-D sculptures have been featured in the Shepherd Union Gallery. This year’s exhibit is titled “Material Evidence,” and will feature 11 sculptures from WSU visual arts students.

“There is a variety of mediums presented, ranging from traditional sculpture to installation to wall-mounted sculpture,” said WSU senior Sarah Ericson, the Shepherd Union Gallery director. “I think that 3-D is the least prevalent, and that we have the least three-dimensional students. I think maybe that’s kind of the thinking behind doing this show . . . to pull a little more attention toward the kinds of things that can be done with three-dimensional work — how that’s changed, what kind of ideas you can explore — beyond what you might be able to on a two-dimensional.”

Ericson said some of the pieces use nontraditional media. One sculpture uses real roots.

“One of the installations that we have will be an installation of a still life that will have real roots, and it will rot over the course of time,” Ericson said. “So kind of the thinking behind it . . . is to kind of call back to traditional still life throughout the course of art history.”

WSU junior Chandler Dee said his sculpture, titled “Resurrection,” is about structural instability and war. While his sculptures usually take 2-4 months to complete, he created this piece made of timber and steel in just one day, which had to do with the meaning of the sculpture.

“Mine was more of the fact that things today can be so quickly made, but so quickly destroyed as well,” Dee said. “It has to do with the prisoner-of-war aspect. It coincides with soldiers today. They’re so quickly used — they’re so quickly eliminated.”

WSU junior Emily Call is a photography major who is new to sculpting.

“I scanned an old photo of my mother, just (from) while I was a child,” Call said. “So I took a photo of her and made a print. Then what I did is I melted candle wax over the image and then I let it dry, and then I actually put pieces of my own hair over the image.”

Call said her sculpture holds a personal, emotional meaning about her mother, who is now battling cancer for the second time.

“You know when you see your loved ones hurting, you try to do something to help them,” Call said. “So that’s kind of what it was about — just exploring that, my inability in being able to take that away from her, or being able to take the cancer out of her . . .”

Call said she hopes her sculpture, “Mother May This be the Last,” will be presented on a stool in a glass casing.

“It took a lot of thinking,” Call said. “I kind of developed it in a bit of time. The old image and then editing that image in Photoshop, and then printing it, and then melting the wax and everything — it really wasn’t too much time. I think I spent like three weeks working on it. I did quite a few different trials with it. . . .  I’m just glad it all worked out all right.”

Ericson said she encourages students to stop by and view the art.

“I think it’s really kind of breaking away from what people consider traditional sculpture, or works that have been around,” she said.  “I think that it’s an awesome learning opportunity to kind of see what else can be done, and where we are today.”

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